Hello, I’m Leona and I’m a yoga teacher and studio owner. I now teach Hatha, Vinyasa and Yin Yoga at Bodhi Yoga Center, General Santos City, Philippines. For private class bookings and general inquiries, feel free to connect with me through leona@bodhiyogacenter.com.

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Month: March 2017

I don’t feel the need to be anything more than that – a beginner. Having said that, my practice is an amazing gift that I nurture with even more practice. It’s a gift from the universe that I do not take for granted. The whole experience is a plethora of emotions just waiting to be unleashed – delight, wonder, indifference, struggle, obsession, disappointment, breakdown, breakthrough, wonder, delight. I welcome each new emotion with an open heart, whether it appeals to my senses or not. I have learned not to dismiss any experience. Any aversion to unpleasant sensations only causes more misery than fully accepting the source of unpleasantness.

Nearly four years ago, I started my journey home to myself. Of course, back then, I didn’t really look at it that way. Back then, I lived a pretty sedentary lifestyle. I was overweight and borderline diabetic. I needed an activity – any activity at that – that allows more movement than my current lifestyle afforded me. I found a yoga studio around the corner from my house, and the rest was history. Each time I am one with my mat, I discover something new about my practice. I find something new about myself. Each time, with no fail, I am reminded that I am perpetually a learner – a beginner.

Fast forward four years…I still come back to practice. Mind you, my yoga has evolved in more ways than one. I’ve had to overcome my incessant ego several times. And I suspect I will still need to overcome its limitless attempts to undermine my journey. You see, ego is a funny little thing. It pushes you in multiple directions, but none of them ever really lead to liberation. It engages your self-destruct button and you have to succumb before you realize that you don’t have to. Ego will create and destroy relationships for you, so you will realize that all you ever really need is already within you.

I have come to terms with the fact that as far as yoga is concerned, as a practitioner and a teacher, I am a child. A stubborn child who has a lot to learn. But unlike a child, I realize now that I am not in a hurry to grow up. I enjoy being a beginner. I don’t really need to go far, I just need to keep going. Continue reading →

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Why is our generation so miserable? We have everything, all the conveniences that technology has to offer. And yet, when we go through our Facebook feed, it’s all full of depression, hate, desperation. To add fuel to the fire is the comments section, which I feel should forever be avoided.

We have more modes of transportation now, making it so easy to get from point A to point B, you’d think people would go out more. But ironically, just when transportation has gotten easier, more delivery options have also become available. Instead of physically going to your favorite restaurant or shopping center, why not have my food and goods delivered with just a phone call or a click of a button?

We have cellphones, internet video calling. Flights are cheaper than ever. But instead we have reduced ourselves to become keyboard warriors. It’s your friend’s birthday? Write on her wall. Oh she’s sick? Here’s a “Get well soon” graphic on her inbox. Guys, when and why did we become so lazy? Having all this unused energy, I think, is making us miserable. There’s so much fire in us that we need to unleash, except going through our News Feed is actually easier so here, let me just do that for one quick minute…

There are those of us who were raised as a God-fearing individual and that’s mainly a good thing. It means that we have with us a set of moral values that we need in order to live a harmonious life with others. We have been attending worship services as young as we could possibly remember. Then we grew up and started making your own choices. We are then constantly reminded that our choices are not always as morally-upright as what your religious leaders expect of you. We are perpetually guilted into submission, in anticipation of a hypothetical eternally blissful afterlife. But what about this life though? Do we purposely forget that we are fighting to survive in this world, right here, right now, where it’s as real as it will ever be?

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At Bodhi Yoga Center, we believe that yoga is a lifestyle and that our practice doesn’t end when we leave the mat or the studio. We practice our yogic values in the way we work and play. And we take fun very seriously.

Spend a month-long immersion in the heart of laid-back General Santos City in Southern Philippines. Spend weekends (and maybe some weekdays) learning theory or practicing vinyasa or acroyoga by the white sand beaches of Sarangani Bay. Do water activities in your spare time such as scuba diving or snorkeling.

Sure, fun is there. But when we work, we work hard. We train from sunrise to sunset, studying a comprehensive syllabus to ensure that our trainees become compassionate and competent yoga teachers after graduation.

Whether you have the calling to teach others, or you are simply exploring your own practice, anyone can benefit from learning safe and correct methods to practice yoga postures, breathing, cleansing techniques and meditation. Appreciate from an anatomical standpoint how these practices affect our physical and mental state. Learn how to modify postures to fit any type of body, and know that Yoga is indeed for everyone. Understand the correlation between the physical practice and the underlying philosophy and truly see that yoga is all-encompassing – it is life as we know it.